A Perfect Spy

Jack is alone in his “rotten” apartment. He goes to the office and hears reports of agents going missing across Eastern Europe. Because of how—and the speed with which—the network collapses, Jack thinks the Czechs want the British to know that they “owned” the network from the beginning. The reason for such a dramatic display is to convince the British that they have Pym, Jack explains, even though they don’t. Kate is horrified by the extent to which everything turned “mad.”

In Vienna, Mary struggles with events. She drinks whiskey alone and hides herself from Fergus and Georgie. She studies a card from Bee Lederer that she knows is a “dismal” forgery; the card contains a request to bind an antique book, referring to Mary’s bookbinding hobby. Nevertheless, she telephones Bee and makes small talk without mentioning the card. Afterward, Mary studies the unbound book. She recognizes it as a book Pym once showed her, so she begins to work on the binding process. Inside is a coded message addressed to her.

Jack feels angry. He now knows that he was “wrong” about Pym’s innocence, but much to his annoyance his superiors at the Firm are now willing to accept his reasoning that Pym hasn’t done anything beyond redemption. Jack travels to a house in Chelsea that belongs to Sir Kenneth Sefton Boyd, Pym’s school and university friend. Jack introduces himself under a false name and asks about Pym. Knowing that Sefton Boyd is gay, Jack offers to remain discreet in exchange for information leading to Pym. Although Boyd denies knowledge of Poppy or Wentworth, he admits that Pym drunkenly telephoned him on the day of Rick’s funeral. During the call, Pym apologized for carving Sefton Boyd’s initials into a toilet door at their childhood school. He had mentioned the same incident in a letter to Tom. Noticing that Pym was increasingly distraught, Boyd stayed on the call with his “old chum.” When Pym called back later, he spoke at length about his plan to write a book to explain to his “two parents” what he had done. One of these parents is Jack. Jack returns to his apartment, and although he tries to sleep, he can’t stop thinking about Pym.

Lederer attends a meeting with top American agents in London. They discuss the man who met with Pym in Greece, referring to him as PHZ. During PHZ’s attempt to talk to Mary at the church, Bee “witnessed the spoken contact” (274) and immediately reported it to her husband correctly. However, rather than being praised for Bee’s quick thinking, Lederer is criticized for involving his wife in a top-secret operation. He’s given a “less hysterical” assignment back in the US.

Pym examines his father’s green cabinet, which has been sent to his room in Miss Dubber’s lodging house. Before revealing the documents, he returns to writing his letter to Tom. In the military, he achieved the rank of Second Lieutenant, though he was told about a future in “a certain establishment” (278). While stationed in Vienna, he continued his correspondence with Belinda. Vienna was a divided city during this time, much like Berlin, and—even in his barracks—Pym felt caught between two worlds. He still felt like a communist “at heart” but was forbidden from fraternizing with Soviet troops. A Czech interpreter named Marlene asked for his protection, but when he showed a romantic interest in her, his superior office lambasted him.

Pym was sent to Graz, where he studied as an intelligence operative under the tutelage of Major Harrison Membury. During this time, he began recruiting and maintaining intelligence sources—referred to in the trade as “Joes.” One of these Joes was Sabina, who—like every other girl—struck him as “the most beautiful girl in the world” (283). Pym worked with Sabina, who helped translate his discussions with Eastern European refugees. Although Pym initially felt sorry for these refugees, he realized that he lacked any real power to help them. He learned to pick holes in their stories in his search for spies to arrest or turn to his own side. While Sabina taught Pym Czech, they developed a sexual relationship.

Sabina gave Pym an “advance tip-off” (287) about a potential Czech defector. The defector had “many secrets about the Russians” (289)—and was a friend of Sabina’s brother, though Pym hid this from Membury. Pym followed her precise instructions and was shocked, then “thrilled,” to find that the defector was Axel. They sat together, ate, and toasted each other with a bottle of vodka. During their conversation, Pym pretended that he had nothing to do with Axel’s arrest. Axel accepted Pym’s explanation for this “one awkwardness” in their friendship. Axel explained that after being arrested, he was taken into the custody of the Swiss, then the German, then the Americans, and then the Czechs. All beat him. When he was returned to Czechoslovakia, his old connections helped him gain release. He joined the Czech communist party and then the army and intelligence services, which he described as a “boom industry.” Eventually, Axel revealed that he had no plans to defect. Instead, he wanted to talk to his old friend. As payment for their friendship, Axel handed Pym a folder containing top-secret information. Axel described an imaginary man named Pavel, who would function as a “defector in place” (297). Axel would pass Pym information, and Pym would pretend that it came from Pavel. The cost of this arrangement was that Pym must never reveal Axel’s existence to anyone. Pym seized on this second chance to prove his loyalty to Axel. As they parted ways, Axel picked two poppies and handed them to Pym to symbolize that Pym was the “keeper of [their] friendship” (299).

The information from Axel immediately resulted in Pym’s rising through the ranks of the intelligence services. Pavel, the supposed source of this information, was given the codename Greensleeves. Pym met with Axel regularly. Together, they manipulated Pym’s superiors into believing that Pavel was reluctant but forthcoming. During one meeting, however, Axel seemed distraught. He told Pym that his superiors were suspicious and that he was in danger. To relieve the pressure on him, he wanted Pym to bring him information so that he could pretend that Pym was a defector whom Axel turned to his cause. Pym considered going to his superiors and asking for “genuine British secrets” (302) that he might give to the suddenly paranoid Pavel without giving too much away. Such information, known as chickenfeed, could be collated and given to Pym to hand over, but he decided that this was too risky. Instead, Pym stole information from Membury’s office. He hoped that by his handing this over to Axel, they’d both be “free.”

Mary attends a meeting of the Vienna Branch of the Diplomatic Wives Association, hosted by Caroline Lumsden. She hopes to slip away from Fergus and Georgie, using the meeting as cover. When Caroline offers her condolences for the death of Pym’s father, Caroline forces herself to cry and, claiming to need a walk, makes her way to the nearest bus stop through Caroline’s backyard. Using a cover story in which he’s writing a history book, Jack visits the now-retired Membury. Together with Membury’s wife, they pore through old photographs from Membury’s time in Graz. Jack asks about Greensleeves; Membury recalls that Pym wanted to rename Greensleeves “Source Poppy” (308), but the bureaucracy turned this down. Membury confesses that he always thought Greensleeves was “a bit of a fraud” (309), particularly because the information received from this source always looked more substantial than it actually was. After Pym’s departure from Graz, Membury was supposed to take over the handling of Greensleeves, but the source “never turned up” (310) for their meeting. Greensleeves was never seen again, and Membury blames this for his stalled career. Membury’s wife talks at length about Sabina, who changed her name and left Vienna to return to Czechoslovakia. According to one defector, she was working for the communists throughout her time as an interpreter for the British.

Mary has received a note hinting that she may be able to reunite with Magnus. After slipping away from Georgie and Fergus, she follows the instructions on the note and sits in the lobby of the Hotel Ambassador at the requested time. She continues to follow the instructions, walking carefully along the streets of Vienna and noticing the people who follow her. Eventually, she arrives at a “phoney” apartment to meet a man named Herr Konig. When she enters the apartment, Konig reveals that he’s Axel. He asks Mary questions about Pym’s disappearance. Like her, Axel has no idea where Pym has gone and is concerned for Pym’s safety. Pym’s final message to Axel, he says, was that Pym no longer wanted to see Axel and that he considered himself “free.” Mary asks whether Pym is secretly a communist. Axel doesn’t believe this is the case. Whereas Jack wishes to find and punish Pym, however, Axel says that he wishes to find Pym and “reward” him with a well-earned retirement. Although Mary resents Axel and wishes to leave, Axel peppers her with questions about where Pym could possibly be hiding, mentioning a vague comment from Pym about finding his mother and placing her in a comfortable house in a small town in Devon. Mary insists that she knows nothing and leaves. She takes a room at a familiar hotel and, taking care to cover her tracks, books a flight to Frankfurt.

Jack tracks down Syd Lemon and asks if he’ll talk about “a private matter” (320). Syd is now an old man, and he fondly recalls the time he spent with Rick, even though he knew that Rick was an untrustworthy con man. He spent time in prison on Rick’s behalf and is unwilling to talk to the authorities, especially because he thinks Jack is a police officer. Jack delicately switches the subject to Pym, playing on Syd’s supposed patriotism to help his friend’s son, who is “playing a dangerous game with some very bad foreigners” (323). Although Pym visited Syd after Rick’s funeral, Syd obstinately refuses to discuss anything that might implicate Pym. Jack notices a “spot where a piece of furniture had stood” (325) in the corner of the room, but Syd refuses to say what—until very recently—stood there. Jack searches the house. Through his questions, he deduces that Pym visited Syd after Rick’s funeral and convinced him to hand over the filing cabinet containing all Rick’s “secrets,” such as legal papers and outstanding debts. Jack wants to know more about the men sent to collect the cabinet, but Syd stops talking; he doesn’t want Pym “doing prison.” Jack returns to a meeting where the gathered men admit that Pym is well ahead of them. They know that Mary has disappeared, though they’ve broken the Czech codes using a copy of Simplicissimus. Returning to his apartment, Jack thinks about his relationship with Pym. He can’t help but sympathize with him, even if Pym is now making Jack “pay” for what he did to him. At home, Jack receives a strange, silent phone call. Through spy craft, the caller promises information. Nigel calls to tell Jack that the police will soon begin searching for Pym. After the call, Mary appears at Jack’s door, telling Jack that based on her conversation with Axel, she thinks Pym is in a small town in Devon. She thinks that there, in “one of his ideal places” (332), he has a woman.